Dark days behind him, Shivam Dube ready to 'be the player the Indian team needs'

[Torrent Disney]

Shivam Dube was at the indoor nets at National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru when an official with the Karnataka team stopped him with a friendly greeting. It ended with the official saying, "You owe the BCCI lots of money still!" A bout of laughter later, Dube continued on his way.

The manager's reference was to Dube's incredible innings of 118 against Karnataka in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019-20 just over a week ago. Dube had hit a century off 58 balls, going from fifty to hundred in a mere 17 deliveries, an innings he describes as one he felt "fabulous" in. He hit ten sixes during his knock, and the ball had to be replaced a fair few times - hence the joke about owing money to the BCCI.

With his maiden call-up to the Indian squad, for the upcoming T20Is against Bangladesh, Dube might have a comeback line along the lines of "take it from my match fees".

The first person Dube will speak to after receiving the call-up is his father Rajesh. "He's my whole and soul, everything. He's always behind me, and he's my backbone also," Dube told ESPNcricinfo during the Hazare Trophy. "He has done everything for me. So the first thing I'll do is call my dad and tell him, 'I've got selected for India'.

"My dream has been to play for India, but even ahead of that, it's that my dad should be happy seeing me play for India."

ALSO READ: The Shivam Dube journey - from school cricket to the Indian team

Dube, who bats left-handed and is a right-arm medium pacer, has been chosen for his ability to hit big and bowl seam-up at a brisk pace, a readymade replacement for the injured Hardik Pandya.

Dube's preferred area of big-hitting is "straight back over the bowler's head", and though his bowling is still in the medium-fast category, he is keen to get his pace higher. It's his big-hitting, though, that has had people sit up and take notice, and it's an aspect he works assiduously on.

"I think I have good power and I use that for hitting big," he said. "I practice a lot for big-hitting too. I have a separate session for it. I always go for two-three sessions and the last session is power hitting. I work a lot on it because that's my strength and I always back my strength. I have the power, so I use it."

True to his words, Dube spent a whole lot of time in that net session batting normally first, and then had a separate slot where the focus was on blasting the leather off the ball. It's something he has been doing in the middle a lot lately. He smacked 155 at a strike rate of 144.85 in four List A matches against South Africa A - and was out just once. In the Hazare Trophy, where Mumbai were done in by the weather, he scored 177 runs at a strike rate of 146.28 from five innings - and was out just twice.